Improvement in adjustable slide-wrenches



T. COOPER & 0. W. CUTLER.

Improvement in Adjustable Slide-Wrench.

No 132,057 Patented Oct-8,1872.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

THEODORE COOPER AND ORRIN W. CUTLER, OF WARWICK, RHODE ISLAND,

ASSIGNORS OF THREE-FOURTHS OF THEIR RIGHT TO AUGUSTUS W. ROBINSON, OF PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND.

IMPROVEMENT IN ADJUSTABLE SLlDE-WRENCHES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No.132,057, dated October 8, 1872.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, THEODORE COOPER and 01mm W. CUTLER, both of the town of Warwick, in the county of Kent and State of Rhode Island, have invented a certain new and useful Adjustable Slide-Wrench.

Our improvements relate to that general class of wrenches which may be described as having a movable jaw, which is arranged to slide on a notched rack-bar, which is in turn rigidly connected to the fixed jaw and the handle.

Our invention consists, first, in a novel combination of gib, screw, movable jaw, and

notched bar, by which an adjustment of the jaw may be effected at any point between any two of the notches; second, in a novel doubleacting spring for controlling the movable jaw; and third, in a novel notch for the rackbar; and we do hereby declare that the following specification, taken in connection with the drawing furnished and forming a part of the same, is a clear, true, and exact description of a wrench embodying our invention.

Referring to the drawing, Figure l represents, in side view, one of our wrenches complete; Fig. 2 represents the same with the movable jaw in longitudinal vertical section; Fig. 3 represents, in rear view, the movable jaw detached from the wrench; Fig. 4 represents the movable jaw in front view; and Figs. 5, 6, and 7 represent respectively a gib, a double-actin g spring, and an adj ustin g-scre w, hereafter fully described.

A denotes the main body :of the wrench. The handle, shank, and fixed jaw are in this instance represented as cast in one piece, and are combined with the rack-bar B in a manner substantially like the so-called Magee wrench. The notches in the rack-bar B differ from any heretofore known to us, in having both sides on a corresponding angle, instead of being vertical on both sides of the notch, or vertical on one side and inclined on the other, as heretofore made.

The advantages accruing from this peculiar form of notch may be enumerated as follows: They are not so liable to injury by being bent or flattened by the accidental dropping of the wrench, as are the sharp edges heretofore employed; the movable jaw is more readily disengaged from the V-shaped tooth than from one with vertical sides; and, finally, the tooth of the movable jaw has, when filling a V- shaped notch, a firmer, broader bearing on both sides of the tooth than in the notch having a vertical and inclined side. shaped notch is also more durable than either of the others. The rack-bar may be provided with a graduated scale, as in common with other similar wrenches, so as to aiford a ready means for accurately adjusting the wrench.

C denotes the movable jaw; it is provided with a mortise extending from face to rear, near its base, for the reception of the rackbar B. The mortise is wider vertically at the rear end than at the front or face of the jaw, so as to admit of the forward rocking movement of the jaw on the rack-bar. The movable jaw is constructed, in this instance, in two corresponding parts, one of which is exhibited in the sectional view in Fig. 2. D denotes a single-toothed gib, on which the movable jaw is mounted, and by means of which it is connected to the rack-bar in any desired position. The tooth of the gib is angular, and fitted to entirely fill a V-shaped notch on the rack-bar. The gib is provided with an upwardly-extending arm, d, which is drilled and tapped after the manner of a nut; when in position the arm 01 occupies, with ample space in front or rear, a recess within the jaw. E denotes an ,adjusting thumb-screw, which is secured in bearings in the movable jaw, and extends from its face to the rear. The arm d of the gib D is tapped to receive the screw, and when the gib is engaged with a notch, the jaw can be moved to and fro on the. gib by the screw a distance equaling at least the distance between the bases of the notches in the rack-bar. F denotes a double-actin g spring, 1

which is attached to the butt end of the movable jaw C, and is arranged to bear upward against the under side of the rack-bar B at one end, and downward upon the adjacent surface of the shank with the other end. The double bearing of this spring prevents the jaw from sliding too freely on the rack-bar; by having the jaw and the spring connected at a point midway betweenthe two ends of the The V- spring, the bearing of the jaw on the gib and of the gib upon the rack-bar is always even and true.

We are aware that slide-wrenches have been heretofore provided with means for effecting a screw adjustment of the movable jaw between the several notches or recesses in the rack-bar or shank of the wrench; we know of none, however, in which the combination of devices herein shown and described can be found, and we therefore claim as our invention 1. The fixed jaw provided with a shank which extends to the handle, and the rackbar B provided with notches, in combination with the movable jaw 0, its spring, the toothed gib D, and adjusting-screw E, as and for the purposes specified.

names? and for the purposes specified.

THEODORE COOPER. ORRIN W. CUTLER.

\Vitnesses:

JOHN H. S'rrnnss, J AMEs W. BLACKWOOD. 

